Sri Lankan doubts on loans, submarines seen as rebuff to Beijing

Mar 03, 2015

BEIJING (Reuters) - If last week's visit to Beijing by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera was meant to allay fears that the island nation's new government was distancing itself from China, it failed.If anything, Samaraweera's comments on the prospect of Chinese submarines using Sri Lanka as a stopover on long-distance westward missions and of bankrolling it through big loans underlined Colombo's hardening position, experts said.That would be welcomed by India, which, as Sri Lanka's neighbour and traditional protector, had grown alarmed at its lurch towards China under the leadersh...